Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reveals a number of path predictions astroid Bennu which is feared will hit Earth.
In a study released on August 11, NASA researchers used data from OSIRIS-REx, a spacecraft used to study the movement of the asteroid Bennu, which is claimed to be a potentially hazardous object (PHO).
Reported from Scitech Daily, the OSIRIS-REx study calculated the probability of an impact from the asteroid Bennu up to the year 2300, and demonstrated the asteroid’s possible future orbital path that helped researchers estimate the potential for an impact from Bennu.
Observations from OSIRIS-REx show the asteroid Bennu will be closest to Earth at 2135 when it passes half the distance from the moon.
This asteroid will be at a fairly close distance to Earth, but researchers say the asteroid poses no threat.
However, researchers need to calculate the exact path of the asteroid Bennu to find out how Earth’s gravity affects the asteroid’s trajectory.
NASA used the Deep Space Network and state-of-the-art computer models to determine Bennu’s orbital path for the next 300 years. And the result is that the total percentage chance of the asteroid Bennu hitting Earth is 1 in 1,750 or 0.057 percent.
In addition, the researchers identified a potential collision on September 24, 2182 as the greatest threat with a probability of 1 in 2700 or about 0.037 percent.
OSIRIS-REx left Bennu on May 10, 2021, spending more than two years near Bennu. During this time, OSIRIS-REx collects information about its size, shape, mass, and composition, as well as monitors its rotation and orbital path.
All of the findings from OSIRIS-REx are published in the journal Icarus, the results of the research also help map the direction of other asteroids and provide predictions of the threat of other dangerous space objects heading towards Earth.
Launch NPR, the asteroid Bennu is an ‘asteroid debris pile’ shaped like a spinning top, wider than the Empire State Building, and was discovered in 1999. NASA considers Bennu as one of only two asteroids that threaten Earth besides 1950 DA.
NASA’s Planetary Security Program executive, Lindley Johnson, said they would work to push Bennu and other dangerous objects out of Earth’s rotational path. Because a hundred years from now we don’t know what kind of technology is there that can make this plan a reality.
November 2021, NASA will launch the first mission designed to hit a space rock and change its trajectory with the spacecraft, in order to deflect a dangerous asteroid.
(lnn/ayp)
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